The use of thermosetting resins or reactants to impart crease resistance and dimensional stability to textile materials is known in the art. These materials, known as "aminoplast resins", include the products of the reaction of formaldehyde with such compounds as urea, thiourea, ethylene urea, dihydroxyethylene urea, melamines or the like. A serious drawback to the use of such materials is that they contain free formaldehyde. This is present during the preparation and storage of the finishing agent and its use in treating textiles, on the treated fabric, and on the finished garments. Also, when the fabrics or garments made therefrom are stored under humid conditions, additional free formaldehyde is produced.
Treating textiles with resin compositions that do not contain or evolve formaldehyde is also known, as in U.S. Pat. No. 3,260,565 which describes finishing agents formed by the reaction of alkyl or aryl ureas or thioureas with glyoxal. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,332,586 and 4,300,898 describe alkylated glyoxal/cyclic urea condensates as crosslinking agents for textiles. U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,846 describes a finishing agent for textiles which is prepared by reacting urea or symmetrically disubstituted ureas in an aqueous solution with glyoxal. Japanese publication No. 5 3044-567 describes finishing agents formed by the reaction of ethylene urea with glyoxal. These agents, however, have the disadvantage of having marginal anti-wrinkling properties.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,879,749 describes fabric treating compositions that contain a polymer having at least two carboxyl groups and a poly(hydroxy) crosslinking agent. U.S. Pat. No. 5,965,466 describes a method for imparting permanent press properties to a textile comprising applying a (hydroxyalkyl)urea or .beta.-hydroxyalkylamide crosslinking agent to the textile.
The present invention provides a textile treatment composition which imparts anti-wrinkling properties to textiles treated therewith, said textile treatment composition comprising a polyhydroxyalkylurea crosslinking agent having at least two urea moieties which is selected from the group consisting of Structures I-III, respectively, as follows: ##STR1##
wherein A is independently selected from the group consisting of a C.sub.2 to C.sub.36 aliphatic group, a C.sub.6 to C.sub.40 alkaryl group; m is from 1 to 100; n is from 2 to 10; x is from 2 to 100; Z is selected from the group consisting of a diamine, triamine, diol and triol; ##STR2##
R.sub.2 is independently selected from hydrogen or R.sub.5 ; R.sub.5 is independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, ##STR3##
and C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl; R.sub.6 is selected from the group consisting of ##STR4##
and C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl; R.sub.7 is selected from the group consisting of ##STR5##
and C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 alkyl; R.sub.8, R.sub.9 and R.sub.10 are independently selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, methyl and ethyl.
According to another aspect the invention provides a textile treatment composition which imparts anti-wrinkling properties to textiles treated therewith, said textile treatment composition comprising the polyhydroxyalkylurea crosslinking agent and a polymer having at least two functional groups selected from the group consisting of carboxyl, anhydride, amine and combinations thereof.
Textiles treated with the compositions of the present invention display a significant reduction in wrinkles compared with nontreated textiles. Moreover, the treated textiles have a tactile sensation of feeling soft and retain their smoothness after laundering.